Daycare on Spring Street allowed to expand

A minor use permit allowing the owner of an in-home daycare on North Spring Street to expand was approved last week by Planning Director Charley Stump.

Sherri Brown owns the Hummingbird Playgarden at 430 N. Spring Street and requested the permit to allow her to have up to 10 children, rather than the eight she was previously allowed.

The crowd gathered at the Nov. 15 hearing filled the small conference room in the Ukiah Civic Center and more chairs needed to be brought in for the group, which included both supporters of Brown's business and neighbors concerned about noise.

One set of neighbors who wrote a letter to Stump to oppose the permit because of the anticipated noise later retracted their letter because of steps Planning Department staff recommended to help control noise.

However, more neighbors concerned about noise attended the meeting, including Haven Logan and Robert Faulk, whose backyard is "directly parallel" to Brown's.

Logan said she and her husband would be the most affected by the noise, and that "our peace was shattered two years ago by the screaming of children" when the daycare first opened. She said they bought the house on Walnut Avenue 16 years ago for their retirement and set about building a writing cottage for her that now overlooks the daycare.

Logan said she needs to sleep during the day because of health reasons, needs quiet to be able to work, and she did not feel "this site is acceptable" for such a daycare.

"Please keep it small and please allow us the peaceful retirement we've been looking forward to for so long," she said.

However, another neighbor on Spring Street said she hardly noticed when the daycare opened and felt it was a "real asset to the neighborhood." Others who were not neighbors spoke in favor of the expansion because of the critical need for licensed childcare in the county.

Linda Nagel, the county's director of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health, said the number of licensed, approved daycare facilities in the county decreased from 95 to 82 just in the past year, and allowing Brown to expand would allow her to have an assistant.

Stump said he was "a little bit conflicted" because some of the neighbors were fine with the noise and traffic while others weren't, but overall he was "inclined to approve" the permit.

Stump said when he visited the facility he was pleasantly surprised by how "clean, orderly" and the "opposite of chaotic" it was. He said the children were well-mannered inside and he believed they would be the same outside, as well.

He said since the expansion would mean a second adult would be supervising the children, "in theory, the noise may be better than before."

Although his staff suggested allowing the facility to operate between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., Stump said he was only allowing the hours the applicant requested: between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with drop-off times staggered between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and pick-up times staggered between 12:45 p.m. and 3 p.m.

He also added the conditions that outdoor playtime only be allowed between 11 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., and that "if the children have trouble maintaining a reasonable noise level, the children should be brought back inside."

Justine Frederiksen can be reached at udjjf@pacific.net, on Twitter @JustFrederiksen or at 468-3521.